Lofty England

Frank Raymond Wilton "Lofty" England (24 August 1911, Finchley, Middlesex – 30 May 1995, Austria) was an engineer and motor company manager from Britain. He rose to fame as the manager of the Jaguar Cars sports car racing team in the 1950s, during which time Jaguar cars won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race on five occasions. After the company's withdrawal from racing England moved into the mainstream management of Jaguar Cars, later succeeding Sir William Lyons as its chairman and Chief Executive, before retiring in 1974.

Early life

Frank England was born in

Both England and Newcombe transferred to American Whitney Straight's new motor racing team in 1934, where results began to flow immediately. The team was extremely well financed – Straight was head of Straight Corporation Ltd., an early service provider in the booming aeronautical sector – and could afford for his Maserati 8C to be serviced at the Maserati factory in Italy, accompanied by England. Straight and his team not only raised the Brooklands lap record for 5-litre cars to over 138 mph, but Straight also won the inaugural South African Grand Prix in 1934. However, following Straight's marriage in 1935 the team was wound up and Lofty England found himself out of work once again.

A brief spell at

Prince Chula ran the cousins' White Mouse Stable racing team with efficiency and organisation, a pattern that England would come to model his own teams on. During nearly two years with the aristocratic pair, England's ERA experience meant that R2B Romulus and R5B Remus were always immaculately prepared and, along with the team's more modern Maserati, provided B. Bira (Prince Bira's nom de course) with many race wins both in the UK and throughout Europe. Although the initial intention had been to rebuild Seaman's Delage, England was fully occupied with the operational race cars and the project was abandoned.

Throughout his time as a race engineer Lofty England maintained his own active motorsport career. An early gift of a Douglas motorcycle from his father had started him on a successful motorcycle racing path. His best result was second place in the 1936 Manx Grand Prix.^[2]

In 1938 England moved out of racing for the first time, taking a job back with Alvis, but this time at the Coventry company's headquarters. He rapidly rose from service engineer to become superintendent of the service department by the outbreak of the

After demobilisation in 1945 Lofty England briefly moved back to Alvis, but the company had been badly affected by wartime bombing raids and through close friend Walter Hassan he secured a move to fellow Coventry firm Jaguar Cars in early 1946.^[1] He initially joined Jaguar in the same role that he had filled at Alvis, that of service manager. The company did not have any motorsport plans at this stage, but in the hands of a few privateer owner-drivers Jaguar's new XK120, introduced in 1948, proved to be competitive with the more specialised offerings from continental manufacturers.

1949–1952: The XK120 era

Stirling Moss drove another of the pre-production cars, entered by Tommy Wisdom, to a dominant victory in the 1950 Dundrod TT, his speed in the rain also winning him a place in Jaguar's 1951 Le Mans team.^[3] Works-prepared XK120s won numerous other events including the Tulip Rally in 1950 and the Alpine Rally in 1950, 1951 and 1952.

In 1952 Lofty England and several factory mechanics supported a high-speed endurance run at

While results continued to come with the production XK120 model, England and Heynes realised that it was too overweight and aerodynamically compromised to have a serious chance of winning the Le Mans race. Their solution was to take the drivetrain from the XK120 and to install it in a lightweight chassis. William Heynes developed a new design with a new frame chassis and new bodywork with air flow shape developed by aerodynamist Malcolm Sayer. The XK120C (for competition), later known as the C-Type, made its debut at the 1951 Le Mans race.

Lofty England's racing experience and sharp strategic thinking required that Moss and co-driver

The 1952 event was nowhere near as successful, as modifications made to the bodywork caused overheating and all three works cars failed before an hour had elapsed. However, for 1953 England's Jaguars were back at La Sarthe with improved engines, the original bodywork, and innovative all-wheel disc brakes. On this occasion the team scored another victory, improved reliability allowing the green cars to take second and fourth places as well.

Lofty England's contribution to the C-Type's success was crucial. Taking a lead from Alfred Neubauer's running of the pre-war Mercedes team, he ran the Jaguar squad always with an eye for the greater good of Jaguar, rather than the individual demands of any one driver.^[2] The 1953 Le Mans event was a case in point, as the Jaguar cars were initially excluded for a technical infringement. The eventual winning driver pairing of Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt repaired to a bar, while Lofty England took matters in hand and managed to persuade the Automobile Club de l'Ouest to reinstate the cars. Legend has it that, unfortunately for England, his drivers were, by this time, a little the worse for wear, and it took all of England's managerial and motivational talents to get them into the car for the start.^[5] England and Rolt both later denied that the drivers had been at all drunk at the time.^[6][7]

1954–1957: The D-Type era

For 1954 Lofty England decided that Jaguar had taken the C-Type as far is they could, and a new car was designed around the successful XK engine. Appropriately, the iconic D-Type made its debut at the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans race, where Hamilton and Rolt were beaten into second place by only one lap, by the Ferrari 375 of Formula One stars José Froilán González and Maurice Trintignant. The 1955 event was poised to be a direct contest between England's Jaguars, and the Mercedes team of Alfred Neubauer. Tragically, an accident triggered by the D-Type of Mike Hawthorn caused the deaths of Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh and 83 spectators, plus injuring 120 others. Neubauer's team were withdrawn from the race some hours later and invited Jaguar to share the gesture, but England decided to keep the Jaguars running.

Lofty England attracted some criticism for his decision after the race but, as he maintained for the rest of his life, England did not regard Hawthorn as being at all responsible for the tragedy and therefore the team had no reason to withdraw.^[2] The decision was typical of the unsentimental, hard nosed manner in which Lofty England ran the team, demanding complete loyalty and adherence to the team principal from his drivers. When, at Reims in early 1956, Le Mans hero Duncan Hamilton ignored England's pit signals, the team manager fired him on the spot.^[2]

The

England's hope of helping Jaguar return to Le Mans in 1966 with the Jaguar XJ13 unfortunately came to nought and the one-and-only Le Mans Prototype was destined to never race.^[8]

Jaguar management career

Immediately following Jaguar's withdrawal from racing Lofty England returned to his role as director of the Jaguar service department. In 1958

During his time at Jaguar, Frank "Lofty" England was probably second only to Sir William Lyons himself in determining the corporate direction and public image of Jaguar Cars. Following his retirement, although he had no direct involvement with the company, England always maintained an interest in Jaguar's fortunes.[2]

After moving to Austria during retirement, England became a consultant to Reliant Motor Company of Tamworth, Staffordshire, UK. The company wished to establish a European distribution network for its Scimitar GTE sports estate car following the development of its more refined SE6 version in 1986. England was successful in assisting Reliant to appoint importers and distributors in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.^{[citation needed]}

England died on 30 May 1995 at the age of 83.^[10]

External links

• Lofty England page at the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust

References